Bruno Stiegler, a boxing promoter with a disreputable past, returns from America to Berlin to make some big things again with his friends. Fatally, he is always preceded by some gentlemen from better circles who are developing amazing criminal activity in their old days. They are led by Oberlandesgerichtsrat a. D. Herbert Zänker, whom it still hisses, that he could bring in his term Bruno never behind bars.
Reviews
"Die Herren mit der weissen Weste" or "Gentlemen in White Vests" (and there are a handful other German and English titles for this film) is a German movie from 1970s, so this one had its 45th anniversary last year already. To start with the positive, it is a very ambitious movie. The takes on crime mixed with comedy are something you won't find too often in German films around that era and the acting wasn't bad either. It#s always fun to see established actors like Mario Adorf during their really early years. The director is Wolfgang Staudte, who worked on a handful other known films at that point too. With writer Horst Wendlandt I am not familiar. The cast includes a couple big names, not just Adorf. Elsner, Erhardt, Giller and Held may be known to some too, maybe others even. The major problem here is the detail. It is ambitious yes, but every time the film goes into detail during its 90 minutes, be it either in terms of character development or comedy or just the general plot, it feels really off the mark. It is not realistic. It is not entertaining, it is just strange and bizarre and at some point this was simply not interesting enough anymore to work for a full feature film. That's why I give it a thumbs down. Quite a shame as there certainly was some potential in here. This could have been a lot better than it turned out. Not recommended.
After the collapse of his production company Cineforum Staudte had to pay his debts and would limit his work to mainly crime series for television and a couple of amusing features. This film is the first feature of this period of Staudte's life. It is an amusing and lighthearted crime story in which a number of robberies take place executed by a group of older and respectable gentlemen much to the dismay of a rival group of real gangsters.These gentlemen are played by older and respectable actors lead by Marin Held. There is good company acting and everybody obviously enjoyed doing this film. Heinz Erhardt has the opportunity to recite a number of his silly poems. Hannelore Elsner is charming as Susan.Well-written script; direction by Staudte is good craftsmanship. He already made a film in the same vein in 1965: "Ganovenehre", that I think is a better film.
